There is nothing
more disappointing than seeing a promising premise destroyed by failed
execution, and that is exactly what we have with Kill Switch. Despite a science fiction narrative that is fairly
clever and more original than a majority of this summer’s blockbusters, the
bland characters and an unwise decision to film a majority of the movie in
first person destroys much of what works. Even with some impressive special
effects, this is yet another first-person film to completely disappoint. At the
very least, if a film is going to present itself like a film version of a video
game, there should be more action and spectacle to justify this decision.

Although
complicated by a nonlinear narrative, the plot for Kill Switch is overly simplistic. Set in the future, a physicist
has created a copy of our world for the mere purpose of harnessing its energy
for Earth’s use. While this experiment seems to work at first, something goes
wrong and it threatens to tear our world apart. Will Porter (Dan Stevens) is
one of their employees, sent to the alternate world to implement a Redivider
box to separate the two universes, destroying one before they destroy each
other. This mission is complicated when Will discovers that human life has been
duplicated in the alternate world as well, and these copies are not keen on the
idea of being destroyed to save the actual world.

Stevens appears
in the flashbacks, which are filmed like an ordinary movie, whereas his efforts
on the alternate world are all filmed through first-person with only the voice
of the actor utilized. All in all, the lead actor has extremely limited screen
time, which may disappoint some of the fans merely watching the film because of
his involvement. When the short film that Kill
Switch is based on was first released on the internet, it resembled a video
game so much that many people were fooled into thinking it was a promotional
video for Half-Life. Kill Switch
seems to wear this honor with pride, using the first-person elements in its
action sequences, inevitably giving the impression of watching someone else
play a video game, which is not all that enjoyable.

Aside from the
obvious flaws in a film resembling a video game without any of the interactive
elements which make that medium enjoyable, the action is a bit too sparse and
repetitious for Kill Switch to remain
engaging, evenwith a mere 92-minute
run-time. Despite soldiers and flying drones chasing Will down in nearly every
scene, there never feels like much at stake. Kill Switch feels like little more than a special effects demo reel,
because of its inability to make us care for any of the characters involved.
Some of these effects are rather impressive, especially the debris from a world
collapsing, but cool visuals are not enough for today’s savvy viewers, who can
see this nearly every weekend at the movie theater.

The Blu-ray
release of Kill Switch is the best
way to watch the film, if only because the best elements are the special
effects that are enhanced by the high definition. On the other hand, this
shouldn’t be seen as a recommendation to see the film, but merely the format to
view it on if it must be watched. The extras include a featurette about the
visual effects that the film seems made to display, as well as a commentary
track with director Tim Smit. The package also comes with a Digital HD copy of
the film.